KYD Designs :: Bloggy Blog

Here are some new renditions of Club Baklava for July and...

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 20:54:38 -0500

Here are some new renditions of Club Baklava for July and October! Not too shabby. ;)

I just saw this commercial! Finally, a family that resembles...

Sun, 09 Jun 2013 13:30:25 -0500

I just saw this commercial! Finally, a family that resembles mine!!!

And for those who think it’s controversial, here’s something that resembles my opinion.

I changed my FB cover photo. I really need to use FB a lot more....

Sat, 08 Jun 2013 21:54:27 -0500

I changed my FB cover photo. I really need to use FB a lot more. But I can’t decide whether to keep it personal or to weave it into my design work? Mostly I’ve been just filtering my blog posts on there. Thinking I’ll keep it personal since I honestly don’t know how to use it anymore!

That’s what getting a doctorate does to you. Social skills out the window!

Doctor in the Building

Fri, 10 May 2013 10:40:52 -0500

In all the chaos of what has become my life as Love & I begin a new chapter in our lives, I forgot to announce (to many people…my bad) that I can now sign my name as: Kenyatta Y. Dawson, Ph.D.!

I graduated yesterday with my Doctorate of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Education!!! My Dad asked me how I felt to be a doctor. My answer…, “I’m hungry”.

Love this. Made me cry.

Tue, 07 May 2013 21:50:21 -0500

Love this. Made me cry.

Finally a quilt for me. :) I made this with no pattern or...

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 13:25:03 -0600

Finally a quilt for me. :) I made this with no pattern or tutorial. Just had 2 Reunion by Moda charm packs and wanted to do something with them. So I bought 2 yards of ash gray by Kona & more Reunion by Moda fabric for the borders. For the back, I pieced together left over fabric I had from past projects. It’s pretty big, I’d say a full sized quilt. Love it!

(Sorry for the quality of photos. I was in a bit of a rush.)

A couple days late, but who cares. ;) For V day I quilted Love...

Mon, 18 Feb 2013 15:36:02 -0600

A couple days late, but who cares. ;) For V day I quilted Love an ultra pink love quilt. It matches a pillow I made for him a few months back. Now he can take naps in style.

Make a Hexagon Quilt Tutorial Here

Here’s the future baby quilt made from Bungle Jungle by...

Sun, 13 Jan 2013 13:38:03 -0600

Here’s the future baby quilt made from Bungle Jungle by Moda. :) It’s a disappearing 4-patch quilt made from charm packs that I quilted from this tutorial. I loved this fabric! Love and I thought it was a good fabric to have that was both boy/girl friendly. I previously made a diaper bag using the same fabric from a class I took from Stitchlab. Hmmm…. I need to find a place to take better photos. The back yard just isn’t quite cutting it. ;)

I should rename my blog to “A quilt a day…”....

Mon, 07 Jan 2013 12:33:27 -0600

I should rename my blog to “A quilt a day…”. It seems like I’ve been quilting up a storm…. And I have. :)

Here is my Supersized Shoo-Fly quilt that I finished up a couple of weeks ago. I made the quilt top at Stitchlab with Malka Dubrawsky as the instructor. I found out that I actually used her line of fabric too, which I used for my fathers quilt (A Stitch in Dye). I’m the type that likes to take a class (kinesthetic learner) rather than read instructions. But here they are for the supersized quilt top.

I made another one at home that I actually like more since I got time to choose what fabric I wanted to match with. Same line, but just a lighter design. I’ll show that soon as well. I have to top made, but I’m piecing scraps of left-over batting together. These too quilts are being made for my office wall. They’re about 34” - a good size. :)

As promised here is the first quilt I ever quilted. It’s a...

Sun, 06 Jan 2013 12:18:24 -0600

As promised here is the first quilt I ever quilted. It’s a crib sized quilt I quilted from the beginners quilting class I took at Stitchlab back in October, I think. I love this quilt for it’s retro feel. It’s a mix of different lines of fabric. The only one I know for sure is that the binding was made from fabric from the Mod Century line by Moda. The only reason I know this is because I did a chevron quilt out of layer cakes out of the same line (which I’ll feature later once it’s done. I only have the quilt top finished). The second thing I love about this quilt is the back - the wood grain look. And lastly, I took a chance and did this wave design for the quilting. It turned out better than I thought it would. Yay!

Unfortunately, I have to take a little break from quilting. It’s dissertation time again. Well…tonight I’ll bind off a quilt that I’ve been working on for future baby. I’ll show that too once it’s done.

Here is the last pic of quilts I quilted for the holidays. This...

Sat, 05 Jan 2013 00:19:36 -0600

Here is the last pic of quilts I quilted for the holidays. This one was given to my in-laws. They’re crazy about Texas! :D Love and I were able to find a Texas themed jelly roll. It’s Deep in the Heart of Texas by Moda (I think I’m a bit of a Moda snob). I made a border with this one because my father-in-law is really really tall. So, the extra length and width suits them. To make the borders extra exciting, I added a dragonfly design - something that my mother-in-law is crazy about too. ;)

One of the reasons I started to quilt was because no one really...

Fri, 04 Jan 2013 13:12:54 -0600

One of the reasons I started to quilt was because no one really knew how to take care of their knitted gifts I would gift. Cotton is so easy to take care of. With my holiday gifts, I included this tag for how to care for their new quilts. Just in case there was any confusion. :)

Here’s another jelly roll quilt I quilted for my sister-in-law. The line is Lucy’s Crab Shack by Moda. With this quilt, I used a 4” binding rather than my standard 2.5”. I love the way a 4” binding looks. It almost acts as a border!

This is the second quilt I’ve ever quilted & it was...

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 13:57:19 -0600

This is the second quilt I’ve ever quilted & it was done through a class I took at the Stitchlab (beginner quilting series course). I did a retro design for me and then did this one at home for my brother-in-laws baby girl. I love the backing fabric!

I’ll post the first quilt I quilted soon along with the nine patch shoo-fly quilt block I completed through a course at Stitchlab as well.

Here’s another jellyroll quilt I quilted for my mother for...

Mon, 31 Dec 2012 23:35:16 -0600

Here’s another jellyroll quilt I quilted for my mother for the holidays. The fabric line was Kissing Booth by Moda. For the quilting detailing I used a machine free motion technique called stippling (which took for-ev-er! - especially since I drew it all out with chalk first). Here’s a great tutorial for stippling with Leah Day. Oh, I should post this too - Here’s another great tutorial on how to make a jelly roll top (jelly roll race) with the Missouri Star Quilt Company. :)

For jelly roll quilts like this one, what I used was: 1 jelly roll, twin sized batting, 4 yards of fabric to make a pieced backing, 1-2 yards for the binding (depending on if I was using a 2.5” or 4” strip for binding), and lots of thread to piece and do any machine free motion stuff. Hope this helps on your quest to learn how to quilt. Jelly roll quilts are excellent for new quilters such as myself. It helped me get comfortable with larger sized quilting projects by not having to pick and match fabric & cut…eek…the fabric.

BTW: Happy New Year!!!

This is the quilt I did for my dad. He loved it and thought I...

Sun, 30 Dec 2012 12:45:25 -0600

This is the quilt I did for my dad. He loved it and thought I went above and beyond my gift giving…as usual. ;) I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE this fabric line! I even made a table runner out of charm packs, which I need to remember to photograph. It’s A Stitch in Color by Moda designed by Malka Dubrawsky of A Stitch in Dye (a local Austinite!). I can’t wait for her new fabric line coming out in April. I also took one of her classes from StitchLab and will be featuring the quilt top shortly. Promise.

Q: What have I been up too? A: QUILTING!!! I’ve been...

Sun, 30 Dec 2012 00:55:38 -0600

Q: What have I been up too?

A: QUILTING!!!

I’ve been learning to quilt & quilting up a storm. Love and I decided that for Christmas we’ll only be giving out handmade gifts. We’ve grown tired of the ol’ holiday wish list and wanted to begin a tradition of giving something from the heart. And boy, does that take time and dedication. ;) But it was lovely seeing people open their gifts and wrap themselves in a quilt I quilted for them. I’ll post all of the ones I completed for the holidays this week, but I wanted to start with this one.

This is the third quilt I’ve quilted. Back in November, I took a beginning quilting class from A Quilter’s Folly. Love chose the fabrics and I quilted it. My parents loved it! It’s big enough to be a lap quilt, but I added curtain ties on one side of it for them to hang it up on a wall. Quilting has brought a lot of joy in my life as I’ve grown a bit tired of painting. Another art form for me to play with. I have too many hobbies. Jack of all trades, master of none…. ;)

Love made some family members jewelry from PMC+. Perhaps I’ll pic post about them without him knowing. ;)

Happy Holidays

Mon, 24 Dec 2012 23:19:39 -0600

Wishing you all Happy Holidays! Click here to: View Card.

Look what I just received! A while ago I designed a conference...

Fri, 30 Nov 2012 12:06:35 -0600

Look what I just received! A while ago I designed a conference logo for the National Association for Developmental Education (NADE). They were a nice group of folks to work with. So nice that they sent me a pin for my portfolio. Totally unexpected. Yay!!! It looks great! :)

Another Club Baklava poster. :) See the original here.

Wed, 14 Nov 2012 17:50:58 -0600

Another Club Baklava poster. :) See the original here.

"Yay! {Finally.} Off to bed."

Tue, 06 Nov 2012 23:57:40 -0600

“Yay! {Finally.} Off to bed.”